When the doors opened to the New York Rangers locker room at the Bell Centre after Friday night’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Canadiens, goalie Henrik Lundqvist was sitting in his corner stall with his face in his hands.

He took a few deep breaths and then started taking off his goalie pads, pushing them to the side. Next he started unwrapping what looked like a roll of plastic tape wrapped around the top of each skate. He made a ball with the tape and then threw it against the wall.

It’s surprising he had enough energy left to do that.

The Canadiens pummelled Lundqvist with 58 shots and the last one by Alexander Radulov in OT was the difference, evening the Eastern Conference quarter-final series 1-1 heading to New York for Game 3 Sunday night (7 p.m., Sportsnet, TVA Sports, TSN Radio 690).

The Rangers, who had the best road record in the NHL during the regular season, had won six of the previous seven playoff games in Montreal, dating back to Game 3 of the 1996 Eastern Conference quarter-finals. The Rangers looked like they were going to make it seven out of eight before Tomas Plekanec tied the score 3-3 with only 17.3 seconds left on the clock in the third period, bouncing a shot in off defenceman Nick Holden, who was playing without a stick after his broke when he slashed at Plekanec a few seconds earlier.

Lundqvist let in the first shot he faced by Jeff Petry 4:05 into the first period and the last one from Radulov. In between he was simply brilliant. Radulov was named the game’s first star, but it should have been Lundqvist after the Rangers were outshot 58-38.

“It’s hard,” an exhausted-looking Lundqvist said after standing up to face the media, then deciding to sit back down. “The way we started was tough, too. A broken stick … they tie it with a broken stick in front. Obviously, they had some more luck there.

“We made some good plays, too, to stay in this game and we had a good chance to win it,” he added. “I think they did a good job of keeping pucks in tonight and that’s where we got hurt a couple of times to get the puck out. They worked hard to keep them in and that’s where they created their second and third chances.

“Obviously, it’s a tough one to give up that late, but it happens. We have to regroup here and get ready for home ice.”

The Rangers had a better record on the road (27-12-2) than at home (21-16-4) during the regular season and lost both games to the Canadiens at Madison Square Garden — one in a shootout. The Rangers also lost their only regular-season game at the Bell Centre.

But the playoffs are a different beast and the Rangers came within 17.3 seconds of taking a stranglehold on this series. Radulov’s OT goal came off a rebound as he fought off Mika Zibanejad to get to the loose puck and slip it between Lundqvist’s legs.

“To be on the road and have the team 3-2 with 20 seconds left and then give up a goal and lose in overtime … got to be able to close that out,” said the Rangers’ Rick Nash, who scored one of New York’s goals.

As for Lundqvist’s performance, Nash said: “He’s great. He’s got to be our best player and he’s definitely proven himself to do that.”

But Lundqvist couldn’t do it alone after shutting out the Canadiens 2-0 in Game 1, stopping all 31 shots he faced.

When asked if he realized how many shots he faced in Game 2, Lundqvist said: “Sort of.”

Canadiens’ Alexander Radulov celebrates his game-winning goal against the New York Rangers with team-mates Jordie Benn, left, and Philip Danault during overtime of the second game of round one of National Hockey League playoff series in Montreal on Friday, April 14, 2017.John Mahoney /
Montreal Gazette

Lundqvist’s 54 saves were a career playoff high for him, topping the 49 he made against the Washington Capitals on April 20, 2011. The Rangers also lost that game 4-3 in overtime.

“It doesn’t matter,” Lundqvist said about how many saves he made Friday night. “We lost the game. Your approach when you go to overtime as a goalie … when you start the game you can’t score, so you just have to give the team a chance to win and stay in it and fight for it. The momentum swing back and forth … that’s going to happen in the playoffs and it did tonight. We had stretches where we played really well … we had stretches where they came really hard and made it tough for us. But we expected this to be a tough series.”

It’s going to be tougher now for the Rangers — although splitting the first two games on the road isn’t a bad way start to the series.

When asked what his thought process will be heading into Game 3, Lundqvist said: “Just to get over this one tonight and recharge. I look forward to playing in front of our own fans. That’s exciting. “

“They’re a good team,” he added about the Canadiens. “They’re a fast team, they create a lot. They have good goaltending.”

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